In today’s digital landscape, businesses face a wide range of risks, from political instability to threats targeting their IT infrastructure. Particularly in the area of cybersecurity—currently classified as highly critical by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI)—risks can have existential consequences. Effective risk management is therefore essential to protect business processes and ensure long-term success.

Risk management involves identifying, evaluating, and controlling risks that could negatively impact information security.

A risk is defined as a potential vulnerability that can be exploited by a (cyber) threat, resulting in harmful consequences for an organization. For example, insufficient employee training in security awareness can be a significant risk. Without proper training and awareness programs, employees may fail to recognize phishing or ransomware attacks in their daily work and fall victim to attackers. In this case, the vulnerability is the lack of training, while the threat is a phishing attack—a potential event that could endanger an entire system through human error.

A central tool for identifying critical business processes is the Business Impact Analysis (BIA). The BIA focuses on identifying critical business processes and resources to pinpoint potential risks that could disrupt their continuity.

Let’s return to the phishing example: the consequences of such an incident could include financial losses or interruptions to business continuity. Consider a situation where an employee, due to a lack of training, opens an email attachment from a spoofed sender. This action could enable ransomware to encrypt and steal sensitive customer data and company secrets. Without access to data or functioning systems, business operations often cannot continue. It may take up to 180 days to fully restore system operations, causing severe financial and reputational damage to the organization.

To mitigate identified risks, appropriate measures must be implemented. For instance, the risk of phishing attacks can be reduced through regular security awareness training. Such training programs educate employees and management about cybersecurity threats. From a technical perspective, implementing an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) tool can help secure the network and quickly identify and address threats.

To evaluate identified risks, their likelihood is analyzed in relation to their potential impact on the organization. This determines the criticality of a risk. For example, if technical and organizational measures are implemented to prevent phishing, the likelihood of harm caused by human error can be considered low. However, the impact of an incident—should one occur despite these measures—would still be rated relatively high.